NorthwestJanuary 28, 1996

GRANGEVILLE This winter, with barely enough snow on the ground to form a snowball, dogsled racing may seem an unlikely pastime.

But for Debbie Jayo and the dozen or so other dogsled racers, or "mushers," living from Moscow to Riggins, there is no such thing as a bad winter.

"If you love dogs and you love being outside in the winter, this is a wonderful thing to do," Jayo says.

A lifelong dogsledding enthusiast, Jayo, 37, who lives north of Grangeville, has been racing competitively since she was 5. Currently she and a partner, Ian Barlow of White Bird, are working with 30 dogs, training them for races this winter and hoping to get a dogsled race established in Grangeville.

"This is a wonderful place for it," Jayo says, adding that she hopes to inspire enough enthusiasm to attract race sponsors as well as other racers.

She and Barlow also run sled dog tours for Brundage Mountain near McCall.

So how does a petite 5-foot woman fit into an activity generally associated with the rough and burly characters of Jack London's "Call of the Wild"?

That image of dogsledding is misleading, Jayo says. Mushers don't dominate their dogs with brute force, but with a gentle combination of know-how, self-confidence and respect.

"It's more a presence you bring into the dog yard and they feel it," she says. "Dogs are very intuitive. Dogs are not going to work for you if they don't respect you.

"Once that trust is established, they will do anything for you it's the neatest thing."

Most sled dogs are well-cared- for family pets. Successful mushers are those who are in it for more than just the money that can be won at races.

"These dogs mean more than just dogs to them," Jayo says. "These dogs are loved. They're not just an instrument. They're not just a tool."

The money, however, is out there for those who are willing to work for it. The top race in the world is the classic Iditarod from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. First-place winners in that annual event win $50,000, plus a new Dodge pickup truck.

Two of Jayo's dogs, O.J. and Cirrus, were on the Iditarod first-place winning team of Joe Runyon in 1989. Tulsa, another of Jayo's dogs who just three weeks ago died of cancer, set the North American track record in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1990, a record that stood for three years.

Dogsledders form a close-knit group, even though they come from all over the world, and travel thousands of miles to participate in races.

"It's a small community because in order to get support they have to be supportive of each other," she says.

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Jayo runs mostly Alaskan huskies, but she says she has seen all different breeds of dogs including a basset hound on racing teams.

She starts training her puppies at about 8 months of age, hooking them to a tire and getting them to chase her. The idea, she says, is to get them used to pulling something while encouraging their love of running.

"The one common factor in all these dogs is the incredible desire to run. That's what they live for.

"The dogs are like a dragster idling on a strip, but the brakes don't always hold."

When a dog is ready, he is hitched to a team. Jayo watches for the most intelligent dogs often the quietest and shyest to be her lead dogs, and establishes special rapport with them.

Lead dogs must be able to read her every thought.

"We're connected. They're kind of like my hands."

Races are divided into different categories, including sprints up to 50 miles, mid-distances from 50 to 500 miles and long distances, which include the 1,100-mile Iditarod.

Racers may be allowed to drop a dog or two during a race, but no new dogs may be added to a team. So the dogs must be in good shape to go the distance.

An average speed for a mid-distance dogsled team is about 13 miles per hour, but Jayo's dogs have reached speeds of 27 miles per hour.

A mid-distance race of 100 miles may take 41/2 days, including only a few breaks to refresh the dogs and allow the handler to rest.

Jayo's father, who is a dogsled racer, bought his first sled dog when Jayo was 2 days old. She has continued that family tradition with her 16-year-old daughter and her sons, 13 and 11, who also race with her.

"It's neat in these times to be able to share something like this with your kids," she says.

"It's not a hobby. This is a way of life. This is definitely an addiction, there's no way around it.

"Running them gives you so much. What the dogs give me, I will never be able to pay back. I owe them my sanity."

Jayo and other local dogsled racers have been training the past couple weeks near Fish Creek Meadows, near Grangeville. Anyone interested in trying dogsledding may contact Jayo through St. Mary's Hospital, where she works as an activities director in the long-term care program.

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